Like many tactics of World War I, this tactic debuted courtesy of the American Civil War - specifically a mining expedition by the 48th PA Infantry at the Siege of Petersburg July 30, 1864.
Exactly right. And nice graphic frithguild.
I was going to post that in 1552 Tsar Ivan the Terrible breached the city walls of Kazan using tunnels and mines. That’s how it was depicted in the Soviet film.
But the accounts I just read only mentioned the use of mines, not how they were emplaced. Oh, well.
The battle of Messines is a forgotten horror. We no longer have the sense of history (and gratitude) we once did as a people, remembering those who sacrificed all. Maybe the IT revolution will reopen the past to us.